BERRIEN SPRINGS, MI -- There have been no new cases of the flu strain that sickened a young Berrien County Fair exhibitor and 40 pigs last month, Dr. Rick Johansen, medical
director of the Berrien, Van Buren and Cass county health departments, said Tuesday.

Pigs and humans can share this flu strain.File photo

"We've had a couple of cases of influenza but those were cases of seasonal influenza, not related to the fair, and there have been no (new) sick pigs," he said.

A 6-year-old boy exhibiting swine at the fair, fell ill at about the same time pigs starting
showing signs of fever and trouble breathing during Berrien County Fair week, which ended Aug. 17.

Both the boy and a pig sampled for testing shared the same diagnosis-- influenza A H3N2v, a variant of a strain of influenza that is primarily a swine disease that can allow the virus to strike humans, said Dr. James Averill, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development Animal Industry Division director and state veterinarian.

The
child's diagnosis was the first first case of Influenza A H3N2 Variant
detected in Michigan in 2013, health officials said in a news release
Thursday, Aug. 29.

Because that strain had been diagnosed in Indiana and Ohio earlier in the summer, Michigan fairs were on heightened alert, Johansen said.

"For the past few years we have had signage about this very issue," warning people to wash hands and avoid bringing food into animal barns, he said. "So nothing is dramatically new" in prevention even after the diagnosis was confirmed, he said.

So far, it appears the disease has not spread beyond the Berrien County Fair.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural development has notified managers at upcoming fairs in Hillsdale, St. Joseph, Allegan, Chippewa, Dickenson and Presque Isle counties, as well as fairs in Saline and Novi, reminding them of swine exhibit hygiene and screening practices designed to prevent the spread of illness.